


Sing a Song or Three

by kotaka_kun



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, basically just giving keith a hard time on their road trip back home, but who doesn't like singing children's songs?, sorta keith's pov i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 13:32:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15365760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kotaka_kun/pseuds/kotaka_kun
Summary: At first, it was harmless enough. Maybe Lance hadn’t realized that he’d been humming the tune at all. Keith was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and if Hunk or Pidge weren’t stopping him, he’d save Lance the embarrassment of pointing it out to him.It only became obvious after the eighth time Lance was audibly humming the song that this was all intentional.





	Sing a Song or Three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RollingWings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RollingWings/gifts).



> this was honestly so fun to write and i'm actually p happy with this?   
> beta-san has the best ideas,, when they're not heart wrenching angst //stares pointedly

It was so quiet, flying through space like this.

All communication systems were fully functional, of course, but aside from the occasional status check-ins, they were all silent, wrapped up in their own thoughts. There was a lot to think about, after all.

So perhaps that was why Keith didn’t notice it right away. There was a soft melody, broken and going in and out a little, but once he heard it, it was hard to ignore. It took him a while to recognize it as humming, though. It had been so soft that the comms had barely picked it up to begin with. Being barely audible made it difficult to pick up the particular tune, or which lion it was coming from, but as it continued, it got louder bit by bit, until Keith could be sure of who it was. The others looked endlessly amused as well that Lance of all people had taken to singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’.

Keith had to admit that the song choice was a little ironic - Lance was singing about stars as they traveled through entire star systems on their intergalactic road trip home - but then again, maybe he’d selected it for that reason.

At first, it was harmless enough. Maybe Lance hadn’t realized that he’d been humming the tune at all. Keith was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and if Hunk or Pidge weren’t stopping him, he’d save Lance the embarrassment of pointing it out to him.

It only became obvious after the eighth time Lance was audibly humming the song that this was all intentional. Lance was not only louder, but he also started to sing the words.

“Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.” His voice wasn’t terrible, but Keith was almost positive he was making his voice wobble just to be irritating. “Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky,” There was absolutely no need for Lance to be pitching his voice so high, so far out of his vocal range. “Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are!” By the end, Lance was making grand gestures as he forced a vibrato that didn’t belong anywhere near this song, but as irking as it was to Keith, everyone else was stifling their laughter in a way that was definitely refreshing and much needed. Lance had always had a knack for keeping the team’s spirits up, Keith thought to himself as he dialed down the volume on his end of the comms. If this was the cost of having Lance break some tension, Keith could certainly sit through a few more silly songs.

“Was that supposed to be some sort of human serenade?” Romelle asked, fighting to keep her tone neutral while Coran turned away from the display entirely to laugh-cough into his fist.

“No,” Pidge sighed, “It’s a lullaby.” Allura and the Alteans behind her had the good sense to look distraught at the notion that human children were put to sleep with such a song.

“It’s never actually sung like that.” Hunk said helpfully.

“Rude much?” Lance huffed, crossing his arms but smiling nonetheless.

“Aw, c’mon buddy, you know I love your singing.” Hunk grinned.

“Then sing with me!” Lance had clearly been waiting for this exact opportunity.

Keith had been certain - hell, he’d been counting on the fact that Hunk would shy away and refuse, say something to deflect and add in a bit of praise before leaving Lance to his own devices, so he’d been startled when Hunk just shrugged and nodded.

“Okay, what are we singing?”

“Itsy bitsy spider!” Lance said excitedly. As the two of them launched into a too-enthusiastic version of the song, Keith heard Allura ask if this was normal. Pidge shrugged in a what-even-is-normal-anymore way before they all resigned themselves to their fate. It couldn’t hurt to hear children’s songs for a bit. They could do with a lightening of mood.

And Keith was sure he would’ve been fine with it all if they’d just sung it and moved on.

But that hadn’t been the case.

They’d gone through ‘The Itsy Bitsy Spider’ at least seven times - three of those times had been in another language - before moving onto ‘If All the Raindrops’ which they went through several times as well and at this point, Keith was sure that even if he wanted to, he’d never be able to forget that if all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops, oh, what a rain it would be, standing outside with our mouths open wide, ah, ah-ah, ah, ah-ah, ah, ah-ah, ah.

When Romelle and Allura started to hum along once they were certain they had the tune down, Keith had to make an effort not to scowl. It had only taken a run or two for them to catch on, and they were clearly having a blast, giggling at Coran, who was making a valiant effort at singing along, despite fumbling over some of the words. It didn’t help in the least - it just encouraged Lance and Hunk, both of whom looked absolutely ecstatic that people were joining in.

This was starting to get out of hand.

When there was finally a pause in the singing, Keith spoke up.

“Alright guys, that was great, I think that was enough,” he said firmly, but it was no use.

“Oh, oh, oh, let’s do a round!” Lance said, practically vibrating in his seat from excitement.

“I think that was enough,” Keith repeated, louder. This couldn’t go on.

“Oh my god, I love rounds.” Of course Hunk would be willing to second Lance’s bad ideas. “Pidge, you’re in, right?” he asked eagerly.

“Yeah, I guess.” Pidge almost sounded reluctant, but her smile betrayed her entirely. Keith sighed heavily, dragging a hand down his face. He’d been afraid of this. Those three were unstoppable under the right circumstances, and at the moment, everything seemed to be aligning in their favor. He wasn’t sure if he could take it.

“Ready?” Lance said, cracking his knuckles for no reason that Keith could see - he was just going to sing. “I’ll start, then Hunk, and then Pidge. Got it?” He took a deep breath.

“Row, row, row your boat,”

“Row, row, row your boat,” Hunk chimed in right on cue as Lance went on with the ‘gently down the stream’ bit.

Pidge was quick to follow, and Keith had to admit that he was impressed that none of them lost their place. The fact that it was a relatively short song was a small mercy, but he’d take whatever he could get at this point. Keith was pretty sure that at this point he had about three different children’s songs jumbled together, playing on repeat in his head and it was awful.

“Okay, thanks for that,” he said flatly, fully intending to tell them to knock it off, but he was interrupted by Allura who sounded far too excited.

“That was quite lovely!” she said, clapping alongside the other Alteans.

“Aw, thanks!” Lance mumbled sheepishly, while Hunk and Pidge exchanged a look, and for a moment, Keith wondered if this was it, if they could finally drop it now, and they could all go back to traversing space in silence.

But no such luck.

“Do you know any more fun songs to pass the time?” Coran asked, and it was all Keith could do to slump back in his seat, groaning. He heard Shiro laugh quietly from behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to glare at his friend. Didn't he understand how painful this was going to be?

“Do I?” Lance’s grin was back, and it was with a deep, and foreboding sense of dread that Keith took in the look of excitement on Hunk and Pidge’s faces as well.

“Lance,” he tried to cut in, but it was too late. Lance was already launching off into ‘I Had a Little Turtle’ with the hand motions and everything. And Keith had to admit that it was pretty funny. He might even have laughed if he wasn’t so tired of these songs.

Everyone else seemed to like it though, following along and doing their best to sing with Lance when he went through it a second time, and then a third. All of which naturally turned into singing ‘Itty Bitty Caterpillar’ and ‘Have You Ever Seen a Fish’ on eternal repeat that had Keith wanting to rip out his hair by the handfuls. Hunk had even led a few of them, songs Keith had never heard before. Songs about Mama saying not to play, it’s a day to work, bright sun, do the work, help me climb a tree, pick some coconuts, cha cha cha.

It was fine.

All fantastic, really.

Just spectacular.

It was obvious that this wasn’t the first time they’d done this, Keith dully thought to himself. There was no way that they’d be able to move so seamlessly between songs otherwise, but then that left him to wonder in what sort of situation they’d had to sing children’s songs on a seemingly endless loop.

He had to wonder if it would be completely unreasonable if he just ejected himself from his lion.

When they came to the realization that those who didn’t know children’s songs by heart could catch on faster the more repetitive ones with a clear pattern, much to Keith’s despair, the entire group launched into noisy and frequently interrupted renditions of ‘Slippery Fish’, followed by ‘Wheels on the Bus’. ‘Five Little Speckled Frogs’ seemed to be a favorite of the Alteans after singing through it a good three times after the three times it had taken for them to get the lyrics down.

“Oh, let’s sing ‘Down By the Bay’!” Lance suggested. “That’s another fun one!”

“Lance, I think you’ve all sang more than enough,” Keith said, ignoring the cries of protest that followed.

“No, we’re just getting started!” Lance huffed.

It had been at least three vargas now, and they still had a ways to go. If Keith had to sit through another round of songs, he was certain his head was going to explode.

“Lance,” Keith grit out, “If you don’t cut that out right now, I will not hesitate to turn these lions around and go right back to where we came from.”

There was a long silence, Keith meeting Lance’s petulant glare evenly despite silently pleading inwardly for Lance to just give it up.

“Fine.” Lance huffed petulantly, and Keith had to do his best not to let out an audible sigh of relief.

Finally.

Silence finally fell back over the comms, and it was smooth sailing.

For approximately three whole ticks.

But then, just as Keith breathed a soft sigh of relief that Lance wasn’t starting back up again, a voice that hadn’t come from the comms, weak and a little shaky, began to sing.

“I love you,”

The words were being dragged out in a horrendously recognizable tune, and Keith whipped around to stare because this couldn’t really be happening, could it? Shiro wouldn’t betray him to the others like this.

“You love me,” Shiro went on, ignoring the mighty death glare Keith was sending his way.

There was an audible gasp from the comms, that Keith could only assume was a collective one from all the others who were clearly just as shocked as he was.

“Shiro,” Keith seethed in warning, but it was already too late. It only took another heartbeat for Lance and Hunk and Pidge to join in.

“We’re a happy family!” they crowed in unison, loud enough for the comms to crackle under the immense audio input. “With a great big hug, and a kiss from me to you!”

Shiro was chuckling behind him, and Keith’s grip on the controls tightened ever so slightly.

“Won’t you say you love me too?” Shiro sang, softer than the others, but looking pointedly at Keith, earning snickers from the rest of the paladins at Keith’s expense.

“C’mon, Keith, you gotta sing this one,” Pidge said dramatically.

“Lance is right, Keith.” Hunk said, “You know you want to.”

“From the top now, let’s go!” Lance cheered.

It was with great reluctance that Keith opened his mouth with the start of the next verse, and he intended to keep his voice as monotone as possible.

“I love you.” There was cheering and whoops from the comms. Probably Lance and Hunk.

“You love me. We’re a happy family.”

Allura was giving him a bright smile, and Keith could feel his face warm. He did his best to sink lower in his seat.

“With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you. Won’t you say you love me too.”

His voice was barely audible by the end, everyone else's voices covering his, but when he turned to look over at Shiro, he couldn't quite manage to keep his glare up.

The smile that all of this had put on Shiro’s face had been worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> come keep me company on [tumblr](http://kotaka-kun.tumblr.com)!!


End file.
